2013-07-30 Oh glob

[Don Alexander]

So his fave manga is One Piece...

[Jinx]

And once again, no one has mentioned the PIVOTAL discovery in today's comic.



Tristan likes Adventure Time.

[controlspire]

It's important not to forget who your characters are when trying to push the envelope to be 'edgy' or otherwise shake things up, as it seems this game developer is trying to do. It's one thing to do something new to add a little new life to an already loved character, but if you do don't forget who they are to push that stories angle. If you do you'll just lose everyone who followed that character initially or alienate them in some way, well I think so at least, so this SOTR was good (in my opinion) cause it was a nice reminder that some writers remember who their characters are....and on an unrelated note, is it just me or do most of these comic-tied message forums seem to focus a lot of comments on different character's breasts?

[vampire hunter D]

....and on an unrelated note, is it just me or do most of these comic-tied message forums seem to focus a lot of comments on different character's breasts?

And the problem is.....?

[Ophidiophile]

I'm putting a strong, but not definite, possibility that the phone call will be "I told you not to mess with a winning formula... now lets get back to what they want..."

Oh, dear, so many of you are going to be so disappointed to discover that upper management just doesn't think that way.

First and foremost, upper management never admits it's made a mistake. Especially presidents. To do so means admitting (in their eyes) that they are not qualified to hold their job. Damn the bloggers, full speed ahead.

Second, they've already spent money on the game. If they have a working game, they aren't going to redo it. That would cost MORE money and delay the release of the game. And they can't make money until they release the game.

Third, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Especially if you don't have to pay for it. More people are going to know about the game because of Sandra than from all the marketing dollars they've spent so far. And, her act can be passed off as a marketing stunt. Even Tristan's comment about girl gamers can be spun into a positive opportunity for the company to promote itself, should anyone ask them about it.

Fourth, the company that Sandra works for, and the company making the game, are owned by the same parent company. They'll either use her to promote the game, or put her on jobs that keep her away from gamers. Either way, she's probably not going to get a chance to advocate her vision of the game. And they aren't going to fire her, since that would mean they'd have no control over her. Last thing they'd want is for her to have a lot of free time to stir up trouble.

And fifth, it's pretty clear they are aiming for a whole different demographic than the original game aimed for. They aren't going to admit they made a mistake in doing so.

[Zorlond]

Games have been abandoned during development before. It takes a lot for a developer to give up on a game, but it does sometimes occour. There was an X-COM game I had my eye on for a while, can't recall the name for it... But it was intended to be a mix of strategy and squad-assisted FPS. I remember it because there was a lot of talk about how overall performance would affect the morale of your troops, and how their animations and voice would reflect that. It never saw daylight, even with a lot of work put into it.

"No such thing as bad publicity." This is a lie that advertising people (and personal agents) throw around all the time in order to keep their jobs (why keep someone who can't sell a product?). Yes, there is such a thing as bad publicity. In this case, people suddenly know about a game that they do not want to buy, and why they would not want to buy it. The intended project is now tanked. It died because of the publicity it recieved. The only way to make something good out of this is by changing the entire thing (abandoning the game they had) and effectively coming up with something new that will actually sell. This is not the same thing. No, it isn't.

Sandra doesn't work for the company that owns the game. She's a model who's working for an agency that is selling it's services to the company that owns the game. The gaming company has no rights to her at all (especially since the contract will be 'worried about later'). Sorry, Ophi. If they don't admit a mistake here, they're not going to make any money. Instead, they'll just dump all the blame on Tristan and fire him.

[Dehumanizer]

Zorlond: the game in question will still be released; these days it's called "The Bureau: XCOM Declassified". Available for pre-order on Steam, in fact.

Ophidiophile is mostly correct about how these things work, sadly, but with a difference: yes, presidents don't admit mistakes or get fired, but *head developers* such as Tristan? They can have "sacrificial lamb" written all over them.

Personally, my prediction is that they'll go "New Coke": this is the perfect opportunity to announce a "back to basics" Chamelia game ("more power-switching than ever!"), and it'll make them millions. My doubt is whether the company president is calling to congratulate Tristan on the opportunity he's created, or to fire or at least demote him (and, of course, claim his Chamelia direction was a case of him disobeying orders, but the company still has the gamers' back on this, watch out for New Old School Chamelia; all the power-switching you could ever want). The former is more likely, IMO.

[Zorlond]

The Bureau is not what I was talking about. I dug around and found the name. X-COM Alliance. Alliance was in development over 12 years ago, and while they may have re-hashed the origional concept for Declassified, Alliance never made it out the door.

[Dehumanizer]

Ah, OK, you're right. The Bureau actually looks like it'll be a lot like Alliance (from reading the Wikipedia article), though taking place in the 60s.

Anyway, am I the only one who thinks that Carmen Chamelia would be an awesome idea for real-life games?

[Bloody Vikings]

I would play that game. (To clarify- the original version, not the reboot that is currently going down in flames.)

[bejammin2000]

Fourth, the company that Sandra works for, and the company making the game, are owned by the same parent company. They'll either use her to promote the game, or put her on jobs that keep her away from gamers. Either way, she's probably not going to get a chance to advocate her vision of the game. And they aren't going to fire her, since that would mean they'd have no control over her. Last thing they'd want is for her to have a lot of free time to stir up trouble.

Not exactly true. The other video game character she was working as is part of the same parent company, not the modeling agency.

[Error of Logic]

Oh, Sandra. You so awesome.

I wonder where this will lead... Can't wait for the next update! ^^

[Doodley]

If Giz makes another spin-off, I'd like it to be about Chamelia!

[Dehumanizer]

If Giz makes another spin-off, I'd like it to be about Chamelia!

Wouldn't mind it (who am I kidding? I'd love it!), but I'm really thinking videogame franchise. Maybe like Devil May Cry, but with a main character who's actually interesting and fun to play as: She Who Is A THOUSAND Heroes In One(tm).

EDIT: is the power switching thing (which is awesome, anyway) inspired by the much-maligned "real-time weapon change" from Genji 2? The one who also gave us "giant enemy crab"?

[vampire hunter D]

If Giz makes another spin-off, I'd like it to be about Chamelia!

And if Team GiDaE CaTS doesn't do this, can someone else please do it?

Hey, any indie game developers here? Get to work on this one (as an 8 or 16 bit game of course)